Emptying the notebook after that 4-3 victory over the Oilers — plus more from the Great White North

EDMONTON — Back-to-backs can be hard on the beat guy, too, so though the intent was there for a quick posting after last night’s game, the energy level wasn’t.

Either that or I had heard there were some legendary Grey Cup parties downtown to check out. More on that later.

Team is long home in San Jose and has the day off, so no injury updates. I can tell you that Devin Setoguchi was walking upright with no visible slings or casts or any outward sign of what the problem might be. Probably a good sign for him. Can also say that the shiner over Scott Nichol’s left eye still looked pretty ugly.

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Nice quote from Nichol in both Edmonton papers today from Saturday’s morning lightly attended skate that I missed:

“I’ve been hit a few times but nothing really this close. It was just a fluke accident,” the Sharks center said. “I’m so short that it usually goes over my head rather than hitting anything.”

*****Maybe more than usual, a lot of decent material from the post-game locker room that didn’t get into the print edition stories, or made it there in abbreviated form. Here’s a sample:

Dan Boyle, who played more than half the game as he logged in 30:31 ice time, on what it was like being one of the four surviving defensemen:

“With four, you’re definitely going out every two shifts and for me, I just had to adjust my game. I don’t know that I put in any offense whatsoever tonight, but the night called for it.”

Boyle on Justin Braun’s offensive contributions:

“He gets his shot through. They don’t need to be bombs, but they’re getting through and guys were jumping on the rebounds. It’s nice to see from a young guy.”

Dany Heatley on how the forwards were able to make life a little easier for the strapped defense:

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“The more time you can keep it in the offensive zone and out of our end, the better it is for them. I thought we did a good job of getting pucks in and establishing a forecheck. We were good at the lines tonight. We got it out, we got it in and protected them pretty well.”

Heatley on his power-play goal, a one-timer on a feed from Thornton after the Oilers botched a clearing attempt:

“We’ve been dealing with that this year on our PK. Sometimes when you don’t get it out it always seems to bite you. We were on the good side of it tonight. (Playing alongside Thornton) “You always have to be ready for it. You never give up on a play and trust he’s going to get it to you.”

Heatley on his second of the night, a shot from behind the goal line off the back of Devan Dubnyk’s right skate:

“I actually was trying to bank it. I’ve done that a couple times this year. Usually it doesn’t work, but I got luck with that one.”

Todd McLellan on the play of Antero Niittymaki late in the game:

“We knew they were going to push. He made some very good saves on net-front scrambles and there was even some composure there not to freeze the puck with about 15 seconds left and we were able to get it out. He’s a veteran goaltender that’s played in those situations before.”

McLellan on escaping with the victory after nearly giving up two goals late in the game:

“I’m glad there wasn’t five more minuites on the clock. We were running out of gas. This was three games in four nights and we played with three lines last night in Vancouver because of injuries and we played with four defensemen here. You could see we were sputtering at the end, but we got it done.”

******It does seem a little bit odd to be leaving Edmonton when the entire nation seems to be converging on the city, or at least getting ready to watch the Grey Cup on TVs from PEI to Victoria.

A writer for cbcsports.ca in town for that event and covering the Oiler-Shark game as well called the Grey Cup something to the effect of the one event each year that gets closest to the heart of the Canadian character. Which obviously involves a lot of beer-drinking.

No, I didn’t get to any of the party tents set up around downtown. But I did drive back to the hotel through streets filled with staggering Canadian pedestrians — and, yes, I chose that adjective carefully — in a happy mood, most of them dressed in the bright green colors of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. And I did hit one of the Whyte Avenue establishments for a pop where the crowd mood was pretty festive, so I got the general idea.

(Quick aside: The cbcsports.ca writer, Malcolm Kelly, came up with a pretty nice sidebar on how those responsible for clearing the snow out of the stands at 62,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium went through a social services agency and paid more than 60 homeless people $15 an hour to get the job done. Plows or snow blowers can take care of the field, of course, but getting the snow out of the stands is a different story. Only shovels and manual labor will do, and this arrangement ended up being a win-win for both sides.)

*****Back-to-backs also left me little time until now to share the usual “only in Canada” notes that make the Great White North the mother lode for hockey writers and hockey fans from the states.

Besides, I’m pretty sure anything light would have seemed out of place coming right after that 6-1 nightmare for the Sharks in Vancouver.

Best I’ve got? My flights from SFO to Vancouver and then Vancouver to Edmonton were on Air Canada, and their Embraer jets have individual TV screens for each passenger with dozens of programming choices.

One of which was a three-hour, made-for-TV biopic on the life of Don Cherry, “Keep Your Head Up, Kid.” Kind of made it an easy decision as far as what to watch — even if you’re not a fan of Cherry, he is a hockey icon and cultural phenomenon up here. Unfortunately, my flights weren’t long enough to see more than the first half — and I’m not expecting a similar opportunity on the United Express plane back to SFO — but it was a great way to pass the time once I got a little work done.

Hockey highlight: The portrayal of old-time hockey legend Eddie Shore as a tyrant who made Cherry’s life a living hell in his playing days.

So far, no sign that the movie is out on video, but when the chance comes, you could do worse — and I’ll probably use that holiday Barnes and Noble gift card to get the DVD and finally get to watch the second half at some point.

Other favorite moment up here: Driving to the airport this morning, going up and down the FM dial and learning of the Medicine Hat Tongue on the Post Festival. Great name for a music gathering, eh?

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

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Yeah, I was really liking Brauns shots from the point too. Those have been glaringly missing from the arsenal.
Great side-notes, DP. I’ve kept some of your tidbits from similar postings as sort of a “things-to-do” if I ever visit those cities. For instance, last seasons notes about Nashville were excellent.

Gary

Go riders!!!

Snow Shovel

David – thanks for the flavors of life in Alberta. I spent some years living near Edmonton, so your observations are enjoyable to read.

Don Cherry’s an icon? In Canada? Gosh! I always thought he got wafted in on an errant time warp from someplace else in the universe!

TankGirl

Nichol: “I’m so short that it usually goes over my head rather than hitting anything.” LOL! Classic.

“Tongue on the Post”…That’s fabulous!
And the ’employ the homeless’ effort to clear the snow is VERY cool!

Thanks, DP for the great quotes, quirky cultural stuff, and the societal insights you include in your blog posts.

theOldeReprobate

Don Cherry must have come from some bizzaroland negative inverse of the Project Runway show. I try to catch him only on black-and-white TV because, in color, my eyes hurt watching him.

pac northwest

Nah. Don Cherry comes from Kingston, Ontario. Just a typical Canadian guy.

WTF

Yup, Don Cherry is a goofball. But, the guy knows his hockey so I’m actually curious to see this documentary. I don’t often agree with his opinions but he is passionate and honest. That’s enough for me.
Thanks for the recommendation, DP. Also, great info on the goings on in the Great White North. I would love to visit someday.

RedWinger

i guess that is one way to avoid losing games when you are up by two goals in the 3rd period….just make sure to have a three goal lead!

theOldeReprobate

RedWinger –
After the DeadThings lose here in SJ Tuesday, you going to have the fortitude to show up here?

theOldeReprobate

pac NW –
I grew up close to there myself, and I can assure you most Canadians don’t catch Cherry’s affliction, Wardrobus Horribilus. Most of us had the vaccination when we were kids… good health care system, remember?

Nick

So… Wallin, Huskins, Setoguchi, Demers, Nichol. Anyone else missing?

Convenient to get these injuries out of the way early, I guess. Unless they fall the way of Anderson, Latendresse, and Staal–Coming back, getting re-injured, and being out for extended periods.

sl

I see that David Perron is still out almost a month after Thornton hit him with that blindside hit to the head. Jamie Baker is a disgrace for claiming and continuing to insist that Perron was not hurt. Baker is pathetic.

Snow Shovel

Olde Repro – Wardrobus Horribilus – Good Description!

PlayingD

Great post, DP. Chock full o’ fun.

CMoreSharks

sl, I think your feelings are misplaced. Jamie Baker was just saying what the St. Louis trainers and coaches said. If they thought he had suffered any injury, they surely wouldn’t have sent him back out onto the ice. To do so would be the highest form of negligence or at least gross incompetence. The actions of the St. Louis organization stated clearly that those with the most information did not consider Peron to have been injured at the time.

The fact that he was does not indicate a problem with Jamie Baker. It does implicate something amiss with the St. Louis Blues organization.

pac northwest

olde reprobate,

I grew up more of less across the lake, in Rochester. Happy I’m not there this time of year. Cherry’s clothes–the high collars, the loud sports coats–are of course self-promotion. I’m not crazy about the clothes, but I do admire his hockey knowledge.

Snow Shovel

David – were I still up there, I could help them remove snow – and I could bring my own shovel! 🙂

TankGirl

Olde Repro: Wardrobus Horribilus

Snow Shovel: I could help them remove snow – and I could bring my own shovel!

LOL!

Ceo

sl – your comments on Jamie Baker will not be tolerated!

BDub

Updated stats for the Teflon Shark…

The Vlasic-O-Meter shows:

0 goals
0 assists
0 points
-8
22 Games played…and counting

Teejay

Did anyone notice that Team Teal did just fine without Wallin and Huskins????

Also, has anyone noted the resemblance of Mayers and Marleau?

me

tj , I’m glad I don’t notice what you notice. To be fair, I’m not sure what that really is anyway.

Dirty

“I just want to wish you both good luck. We’re all counting on you.”

djfk

why dw paying 5mil for wallin and huskin combine

spooky

djfk:
why ? certainly not because of productivity in November.

JB

An AP update (viewable on ESPN and Yahoo and of course many other publications) regarding David Perron described Thornton’s hit as “an elbow to the head.” Oops. That it was Thornton’s shoulder was among the few details not in dispute. It’s an unfortunate error for the AP writer to make because it implies an intent to injure the Blues forward.

dbay

To SL – number 11

My feeling regarding the David Perron hit is several Sharks players owe him an apology. It appeared he stayed down to draw the penalty. And at the time of the penalty he might have embellished the hit. But now we know he was injured. It would not hurt for someone to actually come out and admit they are sorry for calling him out. Either way it was a bad call by the league in my opinion.

cap-o-113

DP= Great stuff from Canada. Did you catch the HNIC telecast? Kevin Weeks almost run over buy a Zamboni talking about the sharks. Plus Dan Boyle on After hours as SJ was on HNIC 2 weeks in a row. They black out the game replay but the pre and post game shows are on HNL network replay sundays. Roughriders fell short v Montreal I found the game LIVE here (san jose) on the Avalanche network on DirecTV. Now bring on the “Dead Things” Tuesday.

Long Time No Cup

Don Cherry’s hockey knowledge is dwarfed by his obsession with self-promotion.

homer

Does anyone know if that Don Cherry movie is planned to air on NHL Network or anywhere else?

BTW – if you haven’t seen Oil Change, I recommend it. Nice inside look at the Oilers coaching and locker room discussions while rebuilding the team. The show even refers to the Sharks as an “elite” team. (Based on past season performance, of course. Not sure if they qualify for that description this year.)

David Pollak

All,

A couple quick things before getting to the day ahead.

1) Don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that Don Cherry movie was a documentary. Strictly docu-drama/biopic stuff — presumably based on real-life events but strictly with actors playing Cherry from age 8 or so on up. No archival footage.

2) Jamie Baker did apologize to David Perron — publicly — as soon as the Blues forward missed those first two games.

David

Martin Brody

Don Cherry is a redneck, an idiot, a clown, and a Toronto Maple Leafs homer. He used to insult the european players, french speaking canadian players, anyone who is not a white english speaking Canadian. Don Cherry is a dinosaur who should retire long ago.

Nick

Glad to hear Baker apologized, but I don’t think “SL” deserves to know that. Guys who spend their time trolling boards don’t care about inconvenient things like “facts.”

me

Brody, you really need to pay attention. Grapes is anything but a Leafs homer. One of his biggest criticisms is of Canadian-American head coach Ron Wilson. There is occasional critic of Burke, an American GM of arguably the largest Canadian NHL franchise.

Not defending Grapes at all. So, I won’t even address any of the other ridiculous assertions you make.

dc

#32 is the idiot and clown

John

You can watch “Keep your head up, Kid”, “The Don Cherry Story” on You Tube David.

CBC makes some great made-for-TV movies and this was no exception. “The Cancerman” makes a chilling Eddie Shore!